40K - Inquisition - Chaos and Faith
by MrMerrey
Summary: The Inquisitorial Team embarks on their first mission with the new members. The team must struggle to work together against an unknown enemy.
1. Prologue

**This is the Sequel to Fight for the Greater Good. If you fancy it check that story out first, though this should still stand on it's own.**

**Cheers**

* * *

'Shuddup Buck!' the man glared at his friend while leaning against a waste bin for support.

'Relax.' Buck replied between hiccups. 'Ya'know what your _hic _what your problem is, Ty?' Buck pointed vaguely in Ty's direction.

'And what, would that…!' Ty lost his grip on the bin and fell to his knees. After several moment the pair both burst out laughing.

'Shh. Shhhhh.' Ty managed to get out while giggling. 'We need to be quiet. Can't be waking your wife up!'

'It'll _hic_ It'll be fine.' Buck replied still tittering 'I'm like a fox! She won't hear me!'

'Yeah, well you have been trying to unlock your door for ages.' Ty looked back up at his friend. Buck looked back at the door he had been trying to unlock, his key dropped on the floor beside him.

'I must be really drunk!' Buck giggled again. 'Cause I have just realised! _hic_'

'What's that? Ty replied.

'This ain't my house!' The pair burst out laughing again. 'I don't _hic_ I don't live in an alleyway!' the laughter continued.

'Hey. Hey Buck?' Ty slurred. 'Why do have that smoke round your leg?'

'Wha?' Buck looked down, waiting for his legs to come into focus as he swayed. Finally he saw the thick black smoke creeping up his body, swirling from the deep shadows of the alley.

'Would you look at that? I _hic_ I'm magic!' Buck said before laughing again. The shadow moving up across his waist and up his back, his bottom half now completely obscured by the swirling vapors.

The smoke continued to envelop him, Ty still laughing. Buck began to realise something was wrong, the fear sobering him.

'Ty? Tyler! This ain't right man!' as the smoke reached his neck. His friend laughing too much to notice his distress.

'Y'know what I love about you Buck!' Tyler looked up. 'Buck?'

Buck was gone. Ty looked around the alley way in drunken delusion. His eye final came to rest on a figure that was emerged from the shadows.

'Buck?' He dribble slightly as he spoke. 'Buck you scared me there man.' He wiped the dribble away with his sleeve.

The figure stepped closer, Ty noticing it wasn't his friend. The man was covered in thick brown robes, made from tattered rough material. His face obscured by a voluminous hood, just the bottom of his alabaster white chin visible.

'Where is Buck?' Ty asked standing clumsily.

The figure slowly raised his hands, thin bony hands. The same alabaster skin appeared cracked and dusty, showing his emaciated muscles between the cracks in the flesh. He pulled his hood down, revealing his face. He was gaunt, with sharp features the cracked skin continued on his face.

'Oi! I asked you a question!' Ty raised as threatening a fist as he could manage in his inebriated condition.

The figure gestured behind him, Ty could just make out a form squirming in the shadows.

'What have you done to him? Buck! You okay?'

The figure finally spoke. 'He is mine! And so are you!'

The surrounding streets echoed to Ty's scream as the figure lunged towards him.


	2. Chapter 1

He laughed inwardly as he sat alone in his quarters. He was a heretic, a sinner and nobody knew. It always amused him how nobody ever noticed. He wasn't the usual chaos worshipping psycho or power hungry dictator. But he was still a heretic. He just didn't believe, he didn't believe the creed.

He didn't believe the Mighty Emperor was a god, and he couldn't bring himself to pray or worship. But he worked for those that lived and died by that belief. And his colleagues believed it too, even now he knew that some of them would be knelt in their own rooms, mumbling meaningless phrases to their God-Emperor. And he would go out into battle with them, and they would look to him for guidance and he would give it. But he had to laugh, even if just to keep himself from despair, they would kill him if they knew, or at least try.

The vox system burst to life. 'Agent Ledo, we have received a transmission from Inquisitor Vigilem.' The voice was distorted by the vintage speakers 'It is encoded for yourself.'

He let out a tired breath before depressing the mic button. 'Put it through'

There was a moments silence before a soft click and an automated message.

'Please verify Vermillion level clearance coded for Agent Jarred Ledo of the Ordo Xenos.' The voice was a flat monotone, a female voice though. He thought for a moment about the dead woman's voice the system was using. Had she believed?

He pressed his thumb against the ID sensor, the expected prick of the needle that took a DNA sample form his flesh.

The light of the sensor flashed blue for several moments, under lighting his handsome features for a second before turning green, the vox clicked once more to signal the transmission coming through.

'Agent.' It was an expectation not a question.

'Greetings Inquisitor.' He replied as he reclined back in his chair, he gazed around his messy living space as he spoke. His eyes fixed on a slightly crushed packet of Iho-sticks, his craving rising once more.

'I have information on a suspect Xeno infestation on a Hive world in the Segmentum Pacificus.' Vigilem was never one for small talk.

'Pacificus? That's a frakking long way.' Jadden replied whistfully. He had mostly operated in the Ultima Segmentum and the Segmentum Tempestus. He had even been to Segmentum Solar once but Pacificus was a long way, and even he had heard about a large number of civil uprisings against the imperium.'

'The duty of the Inquisition is not effected by distance.' Vigilem had an irritated tone to his voice.

'So what is it? Orks?' The agent quickly hopped out of his seat as he finished speaking to snatch the Iho-sticks from the floor. He sat down again, rushing the movement as if the Inquisitor would notice his attention wasn't fully on the conversation.

'Negative, there are rumours of monsters lurking in the depths of the Hive, snatching civilians away.' The man's voice was impassive, the mention of monsters not troubling him.

'Genestealers?' He didn't let it show in his voice, but he had a certain disdain for genestealers, he had a bad history with them.

'That would be my guess, but we have no real evidence to say what is happening.'

'And you need us for this because?'

'Because I say so.' A flash of anger crossed the Inquisitors voice.

'Of course, how naive of me.' He knew that Vigilem was a prick sometimes.

'You will prepare your team and transition to a Cargo freighter at 0600 tomorrow. Travelling under the guise of administratum tithe chamber adepts, you will keep your presence hidden as much as possible.'

'Understood.' Jad sent a zap of warp energy between his fingers, setting the Iho-stick clasped in his lips alight. He took a long refreshing lungful of smoke.

'I will leave a care package for you in the back of the transfer vessel, you are all to get changed into your administratum uniforms before you reached the freighter.'

'And our weapons?'

'There will be enough storage space in the crate to hide your equipment.' Vigilem had an irritated tone, as if that should have been obvious to the agent. The channel clicked off before he could reply, leaving Jadden alone in his cloud of Iho smoke.

* * *

'What do we have?' Detective Cole asked as he entered the room.

'3 missing workers as of this morning. Making 258 in total.' A junior officer responded at once. A new recruit who excelled at almost everything. Cole didn't like her.

'We have a report from a worker in Hive tower 16 claiming that he was attacked by zombies while working pipework maintenance.' Another voice came from the back of the room. Cole didn't look to see who it was.

That was one of many such reports of monsters in the depths of the Hive. Everything from aliens to zombie over the past 6 months. He didn't understand what was going on, but he had been put in charge of this team by the Planetary Governess herself, he would get to bottom of this. He initially thought there was something in the water, poisoning people which either made them see things or killed them, but not a single body had turned up. The reports had been inconsistent from the start, Some claiming that a giant hound was stalking the underhive, others claimed to see hordes of deranged people jumping out at them from the shadows. One guy even claimed he saw the Grim Reaper. Cole had to look that one up, a dated old earth myth about the manifestation of Death. In the end he had sent a message to the Imperium requesting aid. He thought he would get professional who might have seen something like this before, but all he got was a group administratum adepts who just created more paperwork. That was 3 months ago, and he still didn't have a clue what was going on.

He looked around the cramped office, the desks had been squeezed together to get everyone into the small room. His desk at least was in the corner granting him a little more space. The room stank of sweat, the overworked team had been constantly working, there was always at least 5 people working here at any time, and they had more officers out in the hive looking for clues.

He dragged his cup of re-caff across the desk and stared down into the dull black liquid. He took a big gulp, immediately regretting it as the beverage had long gone cold. He poured the remainder into a nearby potted plant before turning back to the stack of paperwork.

He unrolled a thick scroll detailing the most recent report for a missing person, he wondered to himself why they used scrolls, surely flat paper would be easier to store and sort. He began reading the report, it detailed that the foundry work had reported for work at 05.57 as normal and was logged as being at his station at the 10.00 inspection, but was missing at the 1400 inspection but had not been registered as moving to another part of the facility. No other workers claimed to see him leave his post, though a number had confirmed he was still there as late as 12.50. He had no idea what to think.

Wearily he rubbed the bridge of his nose, exhaling in frustration. The door to the office softly swung open, a hunched figure in grey robes shuffled in and approached Cole's desk slowly, his hands were hidden within the robes sleeves, and his face mostly hidden by his hood. The figure stopped as he reached his desk but said nothing. A number of the other officers stopped working and looked over at the new arrival. Cole waited for the man to speak but he said nothing, finally the detective broke the silence.

'Can I help?' He said to the figure, accidentally sounding more pedantic than he had intended.

'I wish to speak with Detective Cole?' The man seemingly oblivious to the detectives tone.

'You are?'

'Excellent. I am here to discuss our findings from the reports relating to your investigation.'

'Okay, what are your findings?' Cole could tell this was going to be a laborious conversation.

'Well, we have deduced that the number of reports has increased proportionately to the number of people that have gone missing. We believe that explains the responsible party for the attacks and abductions.' The adept finished with a smile, evidently proud of what the administratum had discovered.

'Right, and who is the responsible then?' Cole tried not to sound irritated.

'Well, the missing people?' The adept lift his head slightly, revealing his face. He was a young man, probably early twenties but had boyish features so he may have been older.

'The missing people are responsible for making themselves go missing?' Cole slowly stood from his desk as he spoke.

'Exactly detective!' Cole slowly moved around his desk.

'I see, well that is a lot of help!' Cole put his hand on the scribes shoulder and began ushering him towards the door. 'I will certainly take it into consideration.' Cole reached for the door handle.

'The Administratum is happy to assist.' The adept chirped.

'I am glad you are happy.' Cole shoved the adept through the now open door and slammed it behind him the man. He let out a frustrated groan. 'Idiot!' He moved back to his desk.

* * *

She looked over her drab black wardrobe and sighed. Everything the inquisition had provided was standard issue, just black versions of Imperial Guard uniforms. All she had of her own was her commissariat greatcoat, which was also black. She grabbed the closest pair of combat trousers and a shirt and began dressing.

There was a buzz by the door. She strolled over and hit the release button, the thick metal slid away revealing Josla stood on the other side. She stood clutching a bottle of wine and a pair of metal cups, she didn't need to say anything. Alishia smiled and gestured for her to come in.

'How are settling in?' The new arrival asked. It had been about 3 months since the events of Kethrin and Alishia hadn't been on any assignments with the team yet. Her and Grant had been training while Grimes was still in recovery from his injuries. Now they had all fully healed, they had DNA samples taken for the team's miracle healing machine and any damage that was done during training could be healed in a matter of hours.

'Fine.' Alishia replied, but Josla could see her new colleague was troubled.

'It's get easier. The first few months are the worst.' The slender woman dropped into a metal chair in the corner, roughly placing the cups down on the matching table. She skilfully kicked a second chair out from under the table, it leant back on it legs for a moment before dropping back to the floor with a clang. Alishia took the seat.

'So how was the mission?' Alishia asked, eyeing the bottle as she did so.

'Nothing special, got the goods without too much trouble.' Jos said absently as she worked the cork free. She had been away about 6 weeks with Bartos, stealing a cache of Eldar weapons from a Rogue trader ship.

'Do you often go on missions without Jad?' Alishia asked, the cork released with a loud pop.

'Occasionally. The boss doesn't really like the quiet missions.' The ruby red liquid poured into the cups.

'So how did you come to be involved in all this?' Alishia had become closest to Jos since she had been on the ship but still new very little about her, or any of the team for that matter.

'Me? I was just hitching a lift.' A smile crept across the woman's face before she took a big gulp from her cup.

'A lift?' Alishia raised an eyebrow.

'Yeah, I was hiding from some guys I owed money too. I hid in the back of goods truck, turns out the Inquisition were using it and here I am.' Jos leant back in her chair.

'I can't imagine you hiding from anyone?' The ex-commissar smiled.

'I wouldn't now, but things have changed since then. I've changed.' Jos looked into the depths of her cup for a moment. There was a crackle from the Vox system.

'We have new orders. Meeting room in 10 please. Cheers.' Jad's voice was distorted by the ancient vox system, but his confident tone was easily identifiable.

'For frak sake!' Jos threw her empty cup onto the table. 'I've only been back on board for a few hours.'

'Im sure Jad just wants to review your last mission or something.' Alishia tried to calm the other woman.

'You heard him! _New Orders_.' She attenuated the last two words with finger quote marks, her voice filled with sarcasm.


End file.
